Review of Meet The Fockers

Introduction

Meet The Fockers is a fun movie, more so than the original Meet The Parents. Ben Stiller is back as Gaylord "Greg" Focker, continually locking horns with his ex-CIA prospective father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro). This time matters are complicated by the fact it is time Jack and his wife Dina (Blythe Danner) met his parents Bernard and Roz played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand respectively. Their inclusion evens up the balance of the movie and puts Jack Byrnes on the defensive for a change. Bernie Focker is a former lawyer turned hippyish househusband while Roz is a sex therapist for senior citizens. Both of them make ultra-straight-laced Jack uncomfortable.

Greg and girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo) are planning their wedding in spite of Jack`s continued doubts. Jack becomes suspicious of Greg`s past history when he meets Greg`s former nanny Isabel (Alanna Ubach) and her son Jorge (Ray Santiago) in whom Jack sees a suspicious resemblance to Greg. Misunderstandings abound.

Ben Stiller phones in his standard performance as Greg, but really all he has to be is the ordinary character surrounded by the nutcases. At the top of the list is Robert DeNiro. Jack Byrnes is the ultimate control freak, having a CIA-issue mini tactical command centre under the bed in his RV. He is run a close second by Dustin Hoffman`s raucous turn as Greg`s dad Bernie, who champions Greg`s almost-victories by having a shrine of all Greg`s third (or lower) place trophies from school. Mum Roz is played by Barbra Streisand, basically being a slightly elder version of the character she played in "What`s Up Doc" having finally got her qualifications as a sex therapist. Between her and Bernie, the couple do their innocent best to screw with Jack`s ultra-conservative mind.

Not that Jack has all of his marble-retaining screws fully tightened. In retirement he is inventing things such as the Manary Gland, a breast-feeding device for men. He brings the device with him for the benefit of his grandchild (the son of his other daughter), Little Jack.

Special mention needs to be made of Jack`s grandson Little Jack, played by total scenestealers Bradley and Spencer Pickren. Little Jack has been trained in baby sign language (rather than teaching the poor little sod English), in some misguided attempt to encourage him to be a genius. Big Jack is extremely protective of the kid and insists on nurturing him mentally as well as physically. Unfortunately, when Jack reluctantly leaves Greg babysitting his namesake, the kid winds up watching a violent movie on tv with his hands glued to a bottle of bourbon, and the first word he utters (picked up from Greg) is "asshole".

Jack`s toilet-trained cat Mr Jinx reprises his role from the first film and is joined in the chaos by the Fockers` hump-anything Yorkie Moses, who almost croaks in a chemi-khazi attack on the cat.

The movie is full of dig-your-fingers-into-your-temples-til-you-draw-blood moments of terminal embarrassment, and there`s a trigger-happy highway patrolman you`ll pray for a drive-by shooting for (but you`ll be disappointed).

Video

The movie is presented in its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect as anamorphic widescreen. I have slight reservations about commenting further on the quality of the transfer because of a technical issue I will go into in the overall section of the review.

Audio

The sound comes in a very satisfactory if underused 5.1 Dolby Digital mix.

Features

There is a full-length Audio Commentary with director Jay Roach that isn`t particularly insightful but passes the time. There are twenty deleted scenes - which include ten branched scenes to create an extended edition. I didn`t find the feature worked particularly well and the footage did little to improve the movie. Eleven minutes of Bloopers are mainly DeNiro cracking up on set. Inside the Litter Box: Behind the scenes with Jinx the Cat. This is a four minute promotional puff-piece about the cat and is the usual "oh he was so demanding/such a perfectionist" sort of thing. There is a similarly short piece on the design of The Manary Gland. There is a short piece on each of the family characters in Fockers Family Portrait - concentrating on Bernie, Greg, and Roz. Adventures of a Baby Wrangler gives you more about the involvement of the twins who played Little Jack. Matt Lauer Meets the Fockers is a chat-show format promo piece with the cast reunited on the promotional tour for the picture. Lastly there is a trailer for Lemony Snicket.

Conclusion

The point of a DVD review is to give a personal opinion on the content and presentation of a specific disc, right? If I read a review from somebody else, I`d assume they were talking about the same disc I was intending to go into a shop and buy. I`d make allowances for the fact the disc the reviewer was watching had come from a PR firm completely stripped of packaging, but it would be the finished product in every other way. As a DVD reviewer, I would expect to be able to give it a place in my own collection if it was a movie I was particularly looking forward to, and the PR company didn`t want it back. (The disc incidentally remains the property of Reviewer Ltd.)

It`s a sad sign of Hollywood`s increasing paranoia over revenue protection that even the supposed test discs Reviewer received for this movie are watermarked with "Property Of Dreamworks Publicity Department - Do Not Duplicate" every ten minutes. They`re damn distracting, spoil the movie and although they shouldn`t be on the final release of the movie, they mean that the disc I`m reviewing is NOT the actual finished product but a specially cobbled version aimed at untrustworthy people like myself. This is on top of Dreamworks` PR company putting a news embargo on any hint of the film`s release until May 2nd. It`s not as if was a secret, and quite frankly it`s not as if this is the greatest movie ever made, but Reviewer played along with the game and as a result was just about the last place on the web to release the news.